How The Portrayal Of Gods By Snorri Sturluson And Hesiod Reflect Their Respective Contextual Environment

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How the portrayal of gods by Snorri Sturluson and Hesiod reflect their respective

contextual environment

Myths preserve traditions, culture and beliefs of a people. Ancient cultures used poems,

folk songs, tales, and ancient writings in preserving their beliefs and practices. Such effort gave

rise to renowned authors and poets like Snorri and Hesiod. Though they originated different parts

of the world, their works had a similar purpose. The reality of both pets immensely affected their

portrayal of their gods. The locus of this paper is to explain in details how Snorri and Hesiod

descriptions of gods reflected on their surroundings.

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic poet who lived in the eleven hundreds. As a poet and

politician, Snorri found himself amidst transition from traditional Icelandic beliefs to Christianity

(Nedic 1). Therefore, he took the initiative to collect and preserve the sagas and myths of Norse

traditions before they were utterly lost. The structure of Snorri's poems was in the form of a

dialogue between tradition and Christianity.

A lot of the information on the Norse myths and gods today, are from Snorri’s Pros

Edda. However, the most famous gods are Thor and Odin. According to Snorri’s description,

Odin is the most powerful and glorious god in charge of heaven and earth. In the poem, Snorri

addresses Odin as All-father (Crossley-Holland 134). This description is an illustration of

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embedded Christianity. The term all- father was a derivative of the Christian address of God as

God the Father. Similarly, the Christian God is the creator of heaven and earth, which

corresponds with Odin's role in Norse mythology.

Moreover, Snorri places Odin as the head of all the twelve gods and goddesses in his

Edda (Crossley-Holland 169). This way, Odin is more powerful than the rest, which is equivalent

to the all-powerful nature of the Christian God. The similarity of Snorri’s description of the gods

to Christianity was instigated by the unprecedented transition of Iceland to Christianity. The shift

led to Christianization of Norse beliefs and practices as seen in Snorri’s works.

Hesiod is another poet who was inspired by his environment in the description of the

Greek gods. His poem, The Works and Days was an inspired reaction to the lack of integrity by

his brother, Perses. Perses was using bribery to enrich himself same as when he added his

inheritance through corruption (Crossley-Holland 234). According to Hesiod, his brother’s

actions were unjust and wrong in the eyes of the gods. As a result, Hesiod wrote a poem that

emphasized on justice.

In the poem, Hesiod's adamant belief in the power of justice held by Zeus is evident.

Hesiod believes that Justice is the favorite daughter of Zeus and therefore a goddess. The belief

in goddess gave Hesiod hope that one day Justice will vindicate him. Additionally, Hesiod tries

to explain the reason for the evil actions of Perse using Pandora (Crossley-Holland 301).

According to Hesiod, Zeus orchestrated Pandora's presence on earth who later bedevilled man.

Hesiod interprets this as an illustration of the mightiness of Zeus. Therefore, Hesiod is warning

his brother of the vengeful and powerful nature of Zeus (Nedic 1). He urges him to follow the

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gods’ purpose, work hard for his prosperity since the immortal gods reward hard work, and

punish evil.

In retrospect, legendary poets used their works to communicate their personal and

communal experiences. Moreover, the effects of their contextual environment were

uncontrollable and therefore inevitable. However, Snorri and Heriod used their experiences to

explain and preserve their respective religion, belief and cultural practices. It is clear that their

works served dual purposes of maintaining and expressing their understanding of their individual

cultural beliefs and practices.

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Works Cited

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. Pantheon, 2012, pp. 134- 320

Nedić, Tomislav. The Origins of the World: The Story of Creation in the Bible, the Qur'an, Epic

of Gilgamesh, the Ginnungagap and Hesiod's Theogony. Diss. Josip Juraj Strossmayer

University of Osijek. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences., 2015.

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